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Thermaltake has announced three new case offerings featuring a 4mm thick tempered glass side window, the Core V71, Core V51, and Suppressor F51 Tempered Glass Editions. All three cases were designed around a modular concept, giving users options for how many 3.5" and 2.5" drives they wish to include. The Core V71 has a "2+8" configuration, the Core V51 has a "2+5" configuration, and the Suppressor F51 has a "2+6+2" configuration. A GPU riser bracket is included in all three cases for optimal support for dual GPU systems, and to help take stress off the motherboard. The cases can accommodate the largest video cards and CPU coolers with plenty of ventilation options and excellent watercooling support.

A recent uptick in the popularity of the Ethereum mining project has led to some scarcity in new and used video cards, and now manufacturers and planning to offer cards targeted specifically at miners. Video cards had previously lost their appeal to the mining community as ASICs designed for mining provided more return on investment and lower operating costs. ASUS has announced an offering based on both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, the MINING RX 470 and MINING P106, respectively. The RX 470 has a base speed of 926MHz and boost speed of 1206MHz with 4GB of GDDR5 and was designed for "delivering maximum hash-rate production at minimum cost." The P106 is based on a GeForce GTX 1060 and has a base clock of 1506MHz and boost clock of 1708MHz with 6GB of GDDR5. The RX 470 has a single DVI port while the P106 has none. According to ASUS, these optimized cards will offer up to "36% uplift in its megahash rate compared to non-optimized gaming cards."

The latest CPU cooler from be quiet! is the Shadow Rock TF 2, the successor to the Shadow Rock TopFlow. A low profile design, with a height of just 112mm with a fan, and a TDP of 160W make the TF 2 a great choice for systems of all sizes. The TF 2 is centered around five 6mm copper heat pipes that are directly connected to the base, allowing for the most efficient transfer of heat. An included 135mm sound optimized fan helps to further increase the cooling potential while keeping noise to just 24.4dbB. The Shadow Rock TF 2 has an MSRP of $60 and has mounting kits for both Intel and AMD systems.

Intel announced its next generation Core i9 CPUs late last month, but didn't set a release date for all of the announced models. The company has now remedied that with release dates for the Core i9-7980XE 18 core, i9-7960X 16 core, i9-7940X 14 core, and i9-7920X 12 core CPUs. The 12 core model will be available first in August, with the 14, 16, and 18 core models hitting the market in October. These models join the i9-7900X and lower models that will be available sometime this month. The prices will range between $1199 for the 7920X to $1999 for the 7980XE, which puts these CPUs out of reach for most consumers. It will be interesting to see how much more performance users are able to achieve for the premium price tag.

The X299 AORUS Gaming Motherboards are the latest offerings from Gigabyte and they "are here to exceed expectations." The board is built using a black PCB and baseplate with black armor and accents which "combine to help support any enthusiast build while reducing cuts and stings from installation." Onboard digital LEDs are paired with RGB Fusion technology to allow for customization of lighting effects. Smart Fan 5 software gives users control over their fans while Fan Stop Technology "reduces unnecessary wear on fans when the system is below a specific temperature." An included high-current 3A pin header is included for powering liquid cooling pumps. Support for M.2 SSDs is included and it is "the first enthusiast platform that will support Intel’s latest Optane Technology." An ESS Sabre DAC is included to provide "unprecedented dynamic range and ultra-low distortion that has yet to be seen on any motherboard." The boards will support the latest Intel X-Series CPUs and will be available sometime in June 2017.